The scars are everywhere. A memorial to cruelty.
Our prosperity was always the object of envy. They bound us, greedily filled their pockets with our belongings and set everything on fire. But somehow, I managed to free myself
But I could not be any more than a helpless bystander. With the pillagers long gone I had to face the enormity of the fire. Father... Mother... I was far too weak to loosen their bonds. I never longed death as much as I did then, even though at that time, I was still a child.
My grandparents cared about and looked after me, but they could never appease the anger, the boundless rage… and the helplessness.
I became a policeman, one of the best - mainly because I had no fear. What could scare me, when I had nothing left to lose? Crime prevention served as a way to vent all the accumulated aggression. Only in my dreams was I able to leave the past behind me. But then everything changed.
It was October when she fell in front of my patrol car. I can still remember exactly how that body crashed onto the cold asphalt and lay there, still, so much beauty and so much misery at the same time. Grace Marshall lay on her hospital bed, according to the meds, a victim of an overdose. But she could be saved.
That night was free from dreams, my thoughts were on her pale face. I saw innumerable Junkies on duty, why would someone destroy themselves like this? Would I ruin myself in such a way? I had to experience it. I had to meet her again. I will remember the 3rd of November forever.
We sat on the park bench, over us only the clear and star-studded night sky. Her face was frozen in a serious expression, and her eyes had an air of sadness about them, but this could not hinder her beauty. She was as beautiful as ever. I could not see the smallest sign of the strains of the last few days. I wanted to conceal that I was a cop, but I didn't even have time to.
At first they looked like orange meteors - outlandish and fascinating. Then the noise came, and the city was flooded in Chaos. I can still remember the first impacts, within fractions of a second, skyscrapers turned into ruins, dust poisoned the atmosphere and people were running erratically around the city. Panic.
I reached for her arm, rushed back to my motorcycle and drove off. Through the rubble, through the blocked roads, forward, simply forward.
I tried to clear my way into the city. Back to my apartment, back to my grandparents' house, back into the remnants of my damaged life. That soon proved hopeless. Debris and the charred remains of cars blocked the roads. I could see the residential complex from the distance. It was burning. Everything was burning. And I knew: there was no way back.
By some miracle we managed to leave the city through the motorway. After what felt like hours riding we came across an outpost. Their outpost. And that was also the moment, when I saw one of them for the first time. They immediately started to attack.
Today we call them the Bane, but back then, I can’t recall. I only know that I got hurled meters up in the air after the impact. Still today I remember this unbelievable heat, the darkness and their roaring.
I do not know how long I lay on the side of the Freeway, until I came round. The mechanical noises were still polluting the atmosphere. Were they looking for me? I ignored the pain and pretended to be dead, until I could only hear the tumult of the river.
Only then did I open my eyes again, I used the bushes to prop myself up and hobbled aimlessly along the river. Grace's thin cardigan lay only a few meters far away from me. That was the last thing I ever saw from her. I used it to make a rough bandage around my leg.
I had time after that. Time to think. Time to let my rage seethe. Time to fight my way towards the Freeway. Time to settle my bill with them. With no weapon and no equipment, but I did not care. I had lost again, just when I thought I could lose no more.
I managed only a few meters until I lost consciousness again. That was two years ago. Two years ago when I was collected on the Freeway by an ambulance service of the AFS. Two years ago when everything was destroyed.
And today? Today we meet underground. War is upon us. And my life has a meaning for the first time: I walk towards my fate and I will fight. Against the Bane and against myself.
I am not a child anymore. No bystander. I am Gareth Williams, soldier of the AFS.
Author C. Mayr
Oberosterreich, Austria
Signature Character Contest Runner-up